Cattle-guard.



A. O. BRIXEN.

CATTLE GUARD.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 11, 1913.

1,094,834. Patented Apr. 28, 1914/ sat n:

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UNITED STATES PATENT FFIE ANDREW C. BRIXEN, OF LAURIN, MONTANA, ASSIGNOROF ONE-HALF TO PHILIPPE O. JOHNSON, OF LAURIN, MONTANA.

CATTLE-GUARD.

Application filed. March 11,

To all 207mm "it may concern Be it known that 1, ANDREW C. BRIXEN. acitizen of the United States residing at Laurin, in the county ofMadison, State of Montana, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Cattle-Guards; and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

This invention relates to cattle guards and has for an object to providea cattle guard which may be applied to a railway track on the side of aroad crossing and will prevent cattle leaving the road and walking upthe track.

A further object is the provision of novel guards between and on eachouter side of the rails, such guards normally lying flat on the ties,and being so mounted as to tilt up upon an animal venturing thereuponand form a fence which will obstruct further ac cess of the animal tothe railway track.

A still further object is the provision of an extremely simple andinexpensive cattle guard which may be formed of a few strong parts thatwill not easily get out of order.

ith the above objects in view the invention consists of certain noveldetails of construction and combination of parts hereinafter fullydescribed and claimed, it being understood that various modificationsmay be made in the minor details of construction within the scope of theappended claim.

In the accompanying drawing illustrating this invention:Figure 1 is aplan view showing the application of my improved cattle guard on bothsides of a road crossing. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the cattle guard.Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section taken on the line 3-3 Fig. 2. Fig. 4 isa cross sectional view on the line 44: Fig. 2.

Referring now to the drawing in which like characters of referencedesignate similar parts, the cattle guard is shown to comprise asubstantially square frame consisting of side walls 11 and end walls 12with longitudinal partitions 13 and 14 disposed parallel with the sidewalls and terminally secured to the end walls. There are cross braces 15connected to the bottom edges of the side walls and partitions near theend walls. The frame is designed to be inserted Specification of LettersPatent.

underneath the rails 16 of the railway track Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

1913. Serial No. 753,578.

with the railway ties 17 disposed across the top edges of the side wallsand partitions and terminally secured by bolting or otherw1s'e t o theside walls. The rails overlie the partitions.

Disposed near that end wall of the frame lying nearest to the roadcrossing, is a shaft 18 which anchored in suitable openings 19 formed inthe partitions and side walls near the bottoms thereof and extendsparallel with the railroad ties. A guard 20 is pivoted on this shaftbetween the rails and other guards 21 are pivoted on this shaft outsideof the side rails, and as these guards are identical in construction butone will be described in detail.

Each guard comprises a pair of parallel metal bars 22 each of which isformed with a U-shaped offset 23 having the bight arched upwardly asshown at 24; to straddle the shaft. A U-shaped strap 25 spans the archwith the legs extending up along the outer side of the U-shaped oflsetand secured thereby by a tie bolt 26 which bridges the offset above thearch, this strap loosely confining the shaft within the arch. The endsof the bars most remote from the road crossing are connected by anoblong sheet metal plate 27, and the ends of the bars nearest to theroad bed are connected by a sheet metal plate 28. The ends of the barsmost remote from the road bed are considerably greater in length thanthe ends nearest to the road bed so that the former ends counterbalancethe latter and the longer ends are thus normally disposed upon therailway ties but may be rocked upwardly by an animal stepping upon theplate which connects the shorter ends to form a barrier which willobstruct access of the animal to the track, as shown by dotted lines inFig. 3. To limit sinking movement, a stop rod 29 is arrangedtransversely of the frame below the short ends of the bars and forms anabutment against which said short ends impinge and are limited therebyin sinking movement.

As an additional means for preventing the animal from forcing its wayacross the guards and thus gaining access to the track, I provideskeleton members that cooperate with the plates carried by the long endsof the bars, each consisting of a U-shaped length of wire 30 the ends ofwhich are passed through slots 31 in the correspond- 2 owest ing plate27 and terminally equipped with eyes 32 which are pivoted by means ofstaples 33 or otherwise to the edge of one of the frame end memberswhich underlies the free end of said plate 27. Upon the plate beingtilted upwardly toward the animal this skeleton member is rockedupwardly by and forms an X-shaped barrier wit-h the plate and presentsits bight toward the animal, such bight striking the animal at about thehead should the animal persist in crossing the guard, such blow beingusually suliicient to cause the animal to turn about and retrace itssteps to the road or crossing.

From the above description it will be seen that l have provided anextremely simple and durable cattle guard which will effectively preventcattle leaving a road crossing and traveling upon the railroad track.

What is claimed, is:

A cattle guard including a frame, a shaft journaled in the sides of saidframe, a pair of parallel metal bars each formed with a U-shaped offsethaving the bight arched upwardly and straddling said shaft, means forretaining said arched portion on said shaft, a plate connecting adjacentends of said bars on one side of said shaft, a plate connecting adjacentends of said bars 011 the opposite side of said shaft, one of saidplates being of greater weight than the other to normally hold the guardin a horizontal position, stops on said frame supporting said heavierplate in horizontal position normally, said plate being providedadjacent one end with a pair of slots, and a U- shaped rod member havingthe legs passed through said slots near the free edge thereof and thenpivotally connected to said frame, said heavier plate being adapted tobe rocked up upon depression of the plate on the opposite side of saidshaft therefrom with a resultant rocking up of said rod to form abarrier.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signa ture, in the presence of twowitnesses.

ANDREW G. BRIXEN. lVitnesses HANs if. KELLER, GEORGE D. GAsrER.

Copier of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of ratents, Washington, D. b.

